More Chinese workers are owed payments this year, employees from several sectors told The Epoch Times, as tensions escalate over unpaid salaries.

Protests have flared up across China, with domestic migrant workers demanding their wages before they returned home for the New Year holiday, which falls on Feb. 17.

On Feb. 15, a blog called Yesterday that serves as a clearinghouse of information about protests in China posted on X that it received submissions about more than 200 salary-related incidents each day for half a month.

Also in February, a similar X account—run by Italy-based artist Li Ying—posted information about more than 150 such incidents from 26 out of 31 Chinese provinces and municipalities.

According to the submissions, protesters clashed with security personnel and police, and at least two people allegedly committed suicide, with many more threatening to jump off buildings. In a video posted on Feb. 5 on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, a lawyer said a worker killed his employer and family after the employer refused to pay him his salary.

Migrant Workers

Many migrants from rural areas work in the construction sector. Sun Wenguang, a subcontractor in Suzhou, told the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times that he has spent two years trying to retrieve back pay for his team, and they are still owed nearly 350,000 yuan ($51,000).

“We asked the local government [to intervene, but] officials kicked the ball around, no one was doing anything helpful. It’s very difficult to get payment,” he said.

All interviewees in this article used pseudonyms because of fears of reprisal from authorities.

Liu Songlin, a migrant worker in Xi'an, said he’s not able to go home for the Chinese New Year because he didn’t get paid.

“State-run companies and big corporations are also owing lots of unpaid salaries. There are some employers here in Xi'an,” he said.

“The whole society is in such a mess. It’s worse than last year. I know many people who didn’t get paid and have no money for the New Year,” Liu said, adding that many construction workers have left the sector because of this.

Zhang He, a civil engineer, said the construction section is seriously affected by the decline of the property market.

“There used to be property projects, and infrastructure was under construction. Housing, roads, the underground, and high-speed rail were all being built. Now the number of housing projects has been halved, and motorways and high-speed rails are almost complete. The amount of work was slashed by two-thirds,” he said.

Several other migrant workers in Anhui, Shandong, Henan, and Guizhou provinces told The Epoch Times they have struggled to find work in the past year and therefore can’t go home for New Year.

“Everyone was doing poorly this year and didn’t earn much,” Guangming, a migrant worker in his 50s said.

He said he could not find any stable jobs in the past year and had to apply for short-term gigs.

Public Sector

Employees of other sectors, including the public sector, are also affected.

Zhao Zhicheng, a bus driver in Shaanxi, said drivers have not been paid for five months and were forced to run an uber-like service on top of their normal work to generate extra income for their employer.

According to Zhao, out of the average 300 yuan ($42) he earns each day from ride-sharing services, he can keep only 100 yuan ($14), and has to pay for charging and maintenance.

“If you get fined for breaking traffic rules, there would be nothing left. Drivers have to pay for all that themselves,” he said, describing the system as a form of layoff.

“[The company] has to pay redundancy if it lets drivers go, so it’s trying to force people to leave this way.” Zhao said around a dozen of his colleagues have already left, and that leaving means they won’t get the back pay owed to them.

Li Yuhua, a nurse in Shandong, said her hospital has suspended salaries for half a year and benefits for one year.

Zhao Yunfei, a public servant in Jiangxi, said salaries for public servants were also slashed by one-third or half.

He blamed the situation on the central government’s tightening of finances.

Beijing is “desperately trying to squeeze more tax revenue from local governments, while local governments have also implemented a series of countermeasures, resulting in a very intense power struggle between them,” he told The Epoch Times.

Zhao said this has eroded the effectiveness of local government, which he said is increasingly skimping on payments, acting on instructions from higher-levels.

Hong Ning contributed to this report.